Chapter 12 Dark Dream #2
“Don’t you worry about that, Elgar,” Demos said. “There would have been a lot more damage done if you hadn’t acted. Ryder meant what he said when he told us he accepted what happened to his territory.”
“He truly did,” Balthazar added. “Quite at peace with it.”
“He likely thought he earned that for his actions during the War,” Caemorn murmured.
“Some things from that era have to be repaid,” Demos admitted. “But I think he found himself again in making the choice he did. People over a place. People over an idea.”
“I will find a way to neutralize the Necrolyte. I just need… time,” Caemorn said.
Time normally was something that Vampires had in abundance, but he knew that every second the Necrolyte was active that it was spreading its corruption throughout Forsworn.
It will make a grand army against the humans if we need it. When we need it, Caemorn thought.
But he feared the damage it would do before then. The undead would attack every living thing to make more of themselves. How long before there was nothing left alive? He had to fix this somehow.
“Come now, Caemorn! This is a success!” Balthazar attempted to rally. “We have succeeded. We killed a Roan slice–well, Elgar did–and captured Legion and Shaela. We didn’t even lose any students and most of the reporters have been wrangled. We have much to celebrate.”
“I prefer to celebrate when everything is settled,” Caemorn said.
“Speaking of getting things settled. Are we going to question them?” Fiona tilted her head towards both of the prisoners.
Balthazar sagged a bit. “I think we should. Most definitely we should. We delayed too long with Jill and they got to her.”
“They cannot get in here,” Caemorn said.
“Are you sure of that?” Fiona asked. “They got into Nightvallen and your palace, Caemorn.”
“I am certain.” Caemorn reached towards one of the walls. “This whole place is saturated with Daemon’s soul. They cannot come in here unless he wills it.”
“Well, that’s a relief!” Balthazar brightened but then sagged again, “But we should still start the interrogation, shouldn’t we?”
“You need to feed,” Caemorn said simply.
“I ate–”
“Balthazar, you get frazzled when you don’t feed enough,” Caemorn cut him off. “And you have been pulled in many different directions as of late plus feeding Christian.”
Fiona flashed him a knowing look. Balthazar was not the only Master who wanted to keep his fledgling safe and happy.
“He’s got you there, Master,” Christian laughed as he put a companionable arm around Balthazar’s shoulders.
He had just returned from the upper levels of the palace where he had been speaking with Julian.
“How is our prince?” Balthazar asked.
“Very happy to have everyone back in one piece,” Christian said. “He’s tending to Daemon right now, but he had to see me in person.”
Balthazar lifted an eyebrow. “His mental connection to you is so strong! So he must have known you were all right–”
“It’s not the same.” Christian smiled affectionately at Balthazar. “Sometimes you’ve got to see and touch someone to be sure they’re fine.”
Balthazar squeezed Christian. “I guess I understand the point in that.” Narrowing his eyes, Balthazar added, “You need blood too, Christian.”
“I do. But I don’t eat until you do,” Christian said. “That’s my one rule.”
“And what of you, Caemorn? Aren’t you hungry?” Balthazar asked.
“I am full.” Caemorn showed them the soul gems in his pockets.
“So you can sustain yourself on their energy just like you would use blood?” Fiona’s eyebrows rose.
“Sometimes better. What it means practically is that I have two power sources to draw from,” Caemorn explained. “Double what most Vampires do.”
“If you’re sure…” Balthazar looked very uncertain about leaving him down here in the palace’s dungeon alone. “We have plenty of Acolytes ready and willing! Dr. Stone arrived yesterday and you two get along rather well.”
“Later,” Caemorn promised.
Balthazar studied him some more, but guessed–or knew–he would not be moved from here right not as he said, “Understood. Fiona, would you or Sana be willing to teleport us to the Eyros Palace?”
“Of course. Then we’ll return here.” Fiona’s gaze slid to Shaela. “I would like to be present for the questioning.”
Shaela hid her face from Fiona as she pressed herself against the farthest part of the cell away from them.
“We will,” Balthazar agreed. He reached and grasped Caemorn’s arm. “Wait for us.”
“You will miss nothing of import,” Caemorn assured him.
They had teleported away and left him with the prisoners and his thoughts.
“Why did you not walk out into the sun?” Caemorn asked both Legion and Shaela.
“We’re not suicidal!” Shaela gasped. It was the first thing she’d said since she’d been imprisoned.
“But you are,” Caemorn said, half turning his head towards her. “For there is no future where you survive and Daemon does not rule.”
“We have a Seeyr,” Legion said. “They showed us the way.”
Caemorn let out a dry bark of laughter. “I had the Seeyr and I can assure you that there is no way your plans work.”
And he couldn’t believe there was any Seeyr Vampire who would turn against Daemon. Even if tortured and starved like their Immortal had been, they would have foreseen their rescue eventually.
“Don’t you want to be free?” Shaela had scrambled to her feet. “What am I saying? You’re one of them. You wouldn’t understand.”
“You believe that you are free?” Caemorn lifted an eyebrow.
“We got to live without you for some time,” she said. “Free of your machinations. Free of your war–”
Caemorn laughed again. “You forget who started that War. It was slices like Roan. He was in the thick of it. Wasn’t he, Legion?”
Legion shrugged or was just adjusting their mass. It was hard to say.
“He changed,” Shaela insisted. “You said yourself that Legion had never met you, which means that Roan is not you.”
“No, he is not. And I have never been so glad. Do you not know the monsters that you associate with?” Caemorn asked, his silver eyes burning.
He closed his fingers around the soul gem.
“Roan tortured his own fledglings. Legion is a serial killer. What freedom do you have with them? What is it worth?”
“We’re not all like that!” Shaela insisted, swallowing harshly.
“Truly? Jill–or whatever her name was–killed a homeless man for fun in front of Grayson,” Caemorn listed off the abuses.
“Then someone came and killed her. A Mirryr Vampire sought to murder Grayson in front of the students to prove a point. Not to mention the monsters you sent after him and the other students. And then there are the dead humans that you’ve left scattered around the Ever Dark like broken dolls.
So, forgive me, but I do think you are all like that. ”
“We don’t want to be ruled–”
“You already are.” Caemorn shook his head. “Daemon is king. There is no changing that. Every molecule inside of us,” he held up a hand, “is ruled by him. Whether you deny it, fight against it, or simply accept it. There is no freedom from him.”
“You want us to have no hope,” Shaela whispered.
“I want you to wake up from the bad dream that I began,” Caemorn said. “And the illusions that I wove after it. Everything you are saying and doing is because of me. But you bleat like some pathetic sheep at me about taking your hope away when there was never any hope. It was all lies!”
Her eyes were huge. “No, there was truth in what you said–”
“No, there wasn’t! I did and said whatever I had to in order to mop up after the War and re-establish order,” Caemorn told her, his right hand sliced through the air. “I created a false religion–made my brothers and sisters your enemies–and cast Daemon as an angel of light.”
“But we fear him most of all,” she said.
“Because I feared his return most of all!” Caemorn thumped his chest. “Because all of this–everything I had wrought–had gone so wrong. And I thought he would never forgive me. But he did. He has. And still you bleat.”
“We know what’s coming if Daemon takes over fully,” she whispered. “There will be another war greater than the one before. So many will suffer. So many will perish.”
“Yes,” Caemorn laughed sourly. “Of course, there will be. The humans will not go down without a fight.”
“But it can be stopped,” she said.
“No, it cannot. Because all of this was determined before you were born,” Caemorn told her. “There is nothing you can do or say that will change things. Not the grand arc that is coming.”
“And if all the humans perish because of it?” she asked.
“Then we go somewhere else. As we have done in the past,” Caemorn answered.
“Like locusts?” she breathed.
“The Ever Dark once knew sunlight,” Caemorn told her. “And there have been many worlds–many species–who have known us and come to regret it.”
She just stared at him. Legion said nothing, but Caemorn was certain even without reading their mind that Legion wasn’t a true believer. They had just wanted Weryn for themselves. He advanced upon the bars. She retreated step for step, but she could never truly get far enough away.
“Did you think you were special?” Caemorn sneered. “Did you think you were chosen?”
“Immortals are monsters.” She shook her head almost violently.
“It all depends on your point of view,” he answered tiredly.
“But if you’re truly worried about humanity, you need not be.
For Julian–our prince, Daemon’s one–started as a human.
And so, as a gift, as a boon, Daemon will preserve them.
So the Sect of Dawn has succeeded in spite of itself. Hurray for you.”